A startup travel-search firm based in Montreal and Boston has raised $12 million in series C financing from OMERS Ventures, TechFinance.ca reports.
Hopper hasn’t launched its Web site yet but is currently working to index about one billion pages of travel data by the end of the year. It claims that would make it the largest travel database in the world. With executives on its team that formerly worked with Expedia and TripAdvisor, this startup is no stranger to the Web travel business.
Hopper’s slogan: “It’s a big world. Hopper helps you discover it.”
OMERS decision to finance Hopper came this week just after Google announced its plans to buy Frommer’s, the well-known set of travel guides from John Wiley & Sons. Google says the travel guides will be used to enhance its local search and travel results.
Google will shell out $23 million for Frommer’s, which is a rare content acquisition for the search giant. If other search engines like Microsoft’s Bing plan to keep pace with Google in the local and search space, they may be looking to make similar acquisitions soon enough.